The Ibanez Gio Series

The history and facts behind Ibanez Gio

The Ibanez GIO Series is a budget guitar series produced by Hoshino Gakki (Ibanez), replacing the Cimar line. The GIO guitars are a "budget" model line similar to Fender's Squier guitars and Gibson's Epiphone line. Unlike those particular budget lines however, these are produced as fully Ibanez branded, with a GIO logo above the standard Ibanez logo to indicate the series. This series of guitars were produced in either China or Indonesia, depending on model.

• GAX series: The budget version of the AX series. This guitar's neck is based on the 22 fret AX profile, and the guitar is fitted with a hard-tail bridge and a dual humbucker (H-H) pickup configuration. The GAX75GP comes with a Shortstop bridge and "downshifter" to allow for quick drop-D tuning.
• GSA series: The budget version of the SA series. This guitar uses a variety of configurations including a SAT-10 bridge, instead of the SAT-Pro bridge on the SA models, and the body wood is Agathis. This models neck is based on the 22 fret SA neck profile. Hardware configurations include a dual humbucker and single coil pickup (H-S-H) combined with a full locking system, a dual single-coil and humbucker (S-S-H) with a standard floating bridge, and a dual humbucker setup (H-H) with a standard floating bridge.
• GSZ series: The budget version of theIbanez SZ series. This guitar uses a Full Tune II bridge instead of the Gibraltar III, and also comes with a Quik Change III tailpiece for easy and quick string changes, these are mounted on top of the body using a wrappiece instead of thru-body stringing. These models use a neck profile based on a 22 fret SZ profile, but use bolt on construction rather than set-neck.
• GRG series. Not including the GRGM, these are the budget versions of the Ibanez RGseries. The DX version uses a Fat 10 single-locking floating tremolo bridges instead of a double locking tremolo system. The body is constructed of basswood, although of a lower grade than that found in Ibanez' higher ranges. The neck profile is based on the 24 fret RG-series neck, and comes with shark-tooth inlay. The non-DX model is fitted with a standard Ibanez floating bridge and dot inlays.
• GRX series. The budget version of the Ibanez RX series (Similar in design to the RG, and with a similarly thin neck, but 22 frets rather than 24.). These guitars use the Fat 6 floating tremolo bridge instead of a double locking bridge design. The body is constructed of basswood, although of a lower grade than that found in Ibanez' higher ranges. The neck profile is based on the 22 fret RX-series neck. There are a number of configurations for this model including the use of pick-guards, humbuckers and single coil pickups. Models range from no pick-guard and two humbuckers (H-H) to a super-strat design with pick-guard, two single coils and a humbucker (S-S-H).
• GRGM series, also known as miKro RG series, this model is a smaller scale guitar designed for smaller hands, with a 22 inch, 24-fret neck, based upon the RG neck. These models use a fixed through body bridge. While normally provided with 2 pickups, a recent model was made available which replaced the neck pickup with an onboard 2.5 watt amplifier. With a recent update, the GRGM now uses Mahogany instead of Agathis for body wood.